"You have made your way from worm to man, and much within you is still a worm" (Nieztsche)
Current Lab Members
Bin Wang
Bin got his Ph.D. in 2007 at the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing. His thesis is focused on the fungal infection to nematode. From 2007 to 2010 h worked as a research assistant at Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences on the nematode sperm activation and cell motility. He joined the lab in late 2010.
Publications:
D. Chen, H. Xiao, K. Zhang, B. Wang, Z. Gao, Y. Jian, X. Qi, J. Sun, L. Miao, C. Yang. Retromer Is Required for Apoptotic Cell Clearance by Phagocytic Receptor Recycling. Science, 2010, 327:1261-1264.
W. Fang, W. Ding, B. Wang, H. Zhou, H. Ouyang, J. Ming, C. Jin. Reduced expression of the O-Mannosyltransferase 2 (AfPmt2) Leads to Deficient Cell Wall and Abnormal Polarity in Aspergillus fumigatus. Glycobiology, 2010, 20:542-552.
B. Wang, X. Liu, W. Wu, X. Liu, S. Li. Purification, characterization, and gene cloning of an alkaline serine protease from a highly virulent strain of the nematode-endoparasitic fungus Hirsutella rhossiliensis. Microbiological Research, 2009, 164:665-673.
W. Fang, X. Yu, B. Wang, H. Zhou, H. Ouyang, J. Ming, C. Jin.Characterization of the Aspergillus fumigatus phosphomannose isomerase Pmi1 and its impact on cell wall synthesis and morphogenesis. Microbiology, 2009, 155:3281-3293.
B. Wang, Z. Liu, L. Miao. Recent advances in the study of spermatogenesis and fertilization in Caenorhabditis elegans. Hereditas, 2008, 30:677-686.
B. Wang, W. Wu, X. Liu. Purification and characterization of a neutral serine protease with nematicidal activity from Hirsutella rhossiliensis. Mycopathologia, 2007, 163:169-176.
Bettina Meier
The C. elegans telomere length maintenance and DNA damage response
Post Doc since August 2005
Bettina did her PhD with Heidi Feldmann at the Genecenter in Munich and than did her first Post Doc with Shawn Ahmed lab in North Carolina.
Telephone Extension: 85788
Publications:
B. Meier, L. Barber, Y. Liu Y, I, Clejan, S. Boulton, A. Gartner*, S. Ahmed.* (2009), The MRT-1 nuclease is required for DNA cross link repair and telomerease activity in vivo in C. elegans, EMBO J. 28(22):3549-63.
Meier B. and Gartner A: Meiosis: checking chromosomes pair up properly. Curr Biol. 2006 Apr 4;16(7):R249-251 (review).
Meier B, Clejan I., Liu Y, Lowden M., Gartner A., Hodgkin J., Ahmed S.: Trt-1 Is the Caenorhabditis elegans Catalytic Subunit of Telomerase. PLoS Genet. 2006 Feb 10;2(2):e18
Roy R., Meier B, McAinsh A.D., Feldmann H.M., and S.P. Jackson (2004). Separation-of-function mutants of yeast Ku80 reveal a Yku80p-Sir4p interaction involved in telomeric silencing. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 279(1):86-94.
Meier B, and S. Ahmed (2001). Checkpoints: Meiotic chromosome pairing takes an unexpected twist. Current Biology 11: R865-R868 (review).
Meier B, Driller L., Jaklin S., and H.M. Feldmann (2001). New function of CDC13 in positive telomere length regulation. Molecular and Cellular Biology 21: 4233-4245.
Feldmann, H., Driller, L., Meier B, Mages, G., Kellermann, J., and E.L. Winnacker (1996). HDF2, the second subunit of the Ku homologue from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The Journal of Biological Chemistry 271:27765-27769.
Meier B, Barber L., Liu Y., Clejan I., Boulton S., Gartner A.#, and S. Ahmed#. The MRT-1 nuclease is required for DNA crosslink repair and telomerase activity in vivo in C. elegans. Manuscript under revision.
# These authors contributed equally as senior authors
Lowden M.R., Meier B, Lee T.W., Hall J., and S. Ahmed (2008). End-joining at Caenorhabditis elegans telomeres. Genetics 180(2):741-54.
Meier B. and Gartner A (2006). Meiosis: checking chromosomes pair up properly. Current Biology 16: R249-251 (review).
Meier B, Clejan I., Liu Y., Lowden M., Gartner A., Hodgkin J., Ahmed S (2006). Trt-1 Is the Caenorhabditis elegans Catalytic Subunit of Telomerase. PLoS Genetics 10;2(2):e18.
Remi Sonneville
DNA replication/ Joint post doc with the lab of Julian Blow
Telephone Extension 85833
Publications:
Sonneville R. and Gonczy P. (2004). Zyg-11 and cul-2 regulate progression through meiosis II and polarity establishment in C. elegans. Development 131, 3527-3543.
Tahayato A., Sonneville R., Pichaud F., Wernet M.F., Papatsenko D., Beaufils P., Cook T. and Desplan C. (2003) Otd/Crx, a dual regulator for the specification of ommatidia subtypes in the Drosophila retina. Dev Cell 5, 391-402.
Cook T., Pichaud F., Sonneville R., Papatsenko D. and Desplan C. (2003) Distinction between color photoreceptor cell fates is controlled by Prospero in Drosophila. Dev Cell 4, 853-864.
R. Sonneville, M. Querenet. A. Craig, A. Gartner* and J. Blow (2011). The dynamics of replication licensing in live C. elegans embryos, Journal of Cell Biology in press *Co-corresponding author
Ye Hong
2010.1-2011.1 - MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany
2005.9-2010.1 - State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Jinan, China
2001.9-2005.7 - Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong
Publications:
1. Hong Y, Chu M, Li Y, Ni J, Sheng D, Hou G, She Q, Shen Y. Dissection of the functional domains of an archaeal Holliday junction helicaseDNA repair,(2011) Nov 6. [Epub ahead of print]
2. Hong Y, Wu L, Liu B, Peng C, Sheng D, Ni J, Shen Y. Characterization of a glucan phosphorylase from the thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus tokodaii strain 7.J. Mol. Catal. B: Enzy. (2008), 54, 27-34
3. Ma X, Hong Y, Han W, Sheng D, Ni J, Hou G, Shen Y Single-stranded DNA binding activity of XPBI, but not XPBII, from Sulfolobus tokodaii causes double-stranded DNA melting Extremophiles.(2011) 15, 67-76.
4. Wu L, Liu B, Hong Y, Sheng D, Shen Y, Ni J. Residue Tyr224 is critical for the thermostability of Geobacillus sp. RD-2 lipase. Biotechnol Lett. (2010),32,107-12.
5. Liu B, Wu L, Liu T, Hong Y, Shen Y, Ni J.A MOFRL family glycerate kinase from the thermophilic crenarchaeon, Sulfolobus tokodaii, with unique enzymatic properties. Biotechnol Lett. (2009),31(12):1937-41.
6. Liu B, Hong Y, Wu L, Li Z, Ni J, Sheng D, Shen Y A unique highly thermostable 2-phosphoglycerate forming glycerate kinase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii: gene cloning, expression and characterization. Extremophiles. (2007), 11(5):733-9.
7. Liu B, Li Z, Hong Y, Ni J, Sheng D, Shen Y. Cloning, expression and characterization of a thermostable exo-beta-D-glucosaminidase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus horikoshii. Biotechnol Lett. 2006, 28(20):1655-60. “
Simone Bertonlini
Simone got his Bachelor and Master Degree in Molecular Biology at the University of the Study of Padua, Italy. He also got a Master 2 degree in Genetics at Université Paris Diderot, France, where he worked in the Lionel Pintard lab on the mitosis-meiosis balance in C. elegans germline.
He joined the lab in 2013 as PhD student.
Sarah-Lena Offenburger
Sarah obtained her diploma (equals MSc) in Biochemistry from the University of Tübingen, Germany. In her thesis she worked with the neurobiological model organism Platynereis dumerilii in the Max-Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. After rotating in different labs in the Wellcome Trust PhD programme in Dundee, she decided in favour of C. elegans and joined the lab in 2012. She investigates the regulation of dopaminergic neurons in and its relation to Parkinson’s Disease.
PublicationsMasoudi, N., Ibanez-Cruceyra, P.*, Offenburger, S.-L.*, Holmes, A., & Gartner, A. (2014). Tetraspanin (TSP-17) Protects Dopaminergic Neurons against 6-OHDA-Induced Neurodegeneration in C. elegans. PLoS Genetics, 10(12), e1004 767. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004767 *equal contributions
Conzelmann, M., Offenburger, S.-L., Asadulina, A., Keller, T., MFCnch, T.a, & JE9kely, G. (2011). Neuropeptides regulate swimming depth of Platynereis larvae. PNAS, 108(46), E1174-83. doi:10.1073/pnas.1109085108
Maier, A. A. T., Stehling-Sun, S., Offenburger, S.-L., & Lohmann, J. J. U.(2011). The bZIP transcription factor PERIANTHIA: a multifunctional hub formeristem control. Frontiers in Plant Physiology, 2(November), 79. doi:10.3389/fpls.2011.00079
Victor González-Huici
Victor did his PhD in Margarita Salas’ group in Madrid, studying DNA replication and architecture in Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage 29 . Then he moved to the IFOM in Milan for a postdoc on genome instability and DNA repair mechanisms in yeast, first in Marco Foiani’s, then to Dana Branzei’s group. In late 2013, following the climb on the phylogenetic scale, he joined Gartner’s group to continue studying DNA damage response.
Publications
1. González-Huici, V., Lázaro, J.M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2000) "Specific recognition of parental terminal protein by DNA polymerase for initiation of protein-primed DNA replication". J. Biol. Chem. 275, 14678-14683
2. González-Huici, V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2000) "Sequence requirements for protein-primed initiation and elongation of phage 29 DNA replication". J. Biol. Chem. 275, 40547-40553
3. González-Huici, V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "The push-pull mechanism of bacteriophage 29 DNA injection". Mol. Microbiol. 52, 529-540
4. González-Huici, V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Genome wide, supercoiling-dependent in vivo binding of a viral protein involved in DNA replication and transcriptional control". Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 2306-2314
5. González-Huici, V., Alcorlo, M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Binding of phage 29 architectural protein p6 to Ø29 DNA. Evidence for topological restriction of the phage linear DNA". Nucleic Acids Res. 32, 3493-3502
6. González-Huici, V., Alcorlo, M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Bacteriophage 29 protein p6: an architectural protein involved in genome organization, replication and control of transcription". J. Mol. Recognit. 17, 390-396
7. González-Huici, V., Alcorlo, M., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2004) "Phage 29 proteins p1 and p17 are required for efficient binding of architectural protein p6 to viral DNA in vivo". J. Bacteriol. 186, 8401-8406
8. González-Huici, V., Salas, M. and Hermoso, J.M. (2006) “Requirements for Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage 29 DNA ejection”. Gene 374, 19-25
9. Alcorlo, M., González-Huici, V., Hermoso, J.M., Meijer, W.J.J. and Salas, M. (2007) “The phage 29 membrane protein p16.7, involved in DNA replication, is required for efficient ejection of the viral genome”. J. Bacteriol. 189, 5542-5549
10. Bermejo, R., Capra, T., González-Huici, V., Facchinetti, D., Cocito, A., Natoli, G., Katou, Y., Mori, H., Kurokawa, K., Shirahige, K. and Foiani, M. (2009) “Genome-organizing factors Top2 and Hmo1 prevent chromosome fragility at sites of S phase transcription”. Cell 138, 870-884.
11. González-Huici, V., Szakal, B., Urulangodi, M., Psakhye, I., Castellucci, F., Menolfi, D., Rajakumara, E., Fumasoni, M., Bermejo, R., Jentsch, S. and Branzei, D. (2014) “Topological changes involving a molecular DNA bender facilitate DNA damage tolerance by template switching”. EMBO J. Jan 28 (epub ahead of print)
Federico Pelisch
Federico is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. He worked in the RNA field (alternative pre-mRNA processing) for almost 10 years before his interest shifted to protein research, specifically post-translational modifications. He obtained his PhD from the University of Buenos Aires in 2010 and was recently appointed Researcher of the Argentinean Research Council (CONICET). Fede obtained a Marie Curie Fellowship to study the role of SUMO conjugation in the DNA damage response using C. elegans as a model system in with the Ronald Hay and Anton Gartner groups. Fede plans to characterize the SMO-1 (C. elegans SUMO ortholog) proteome using mass spectrometry (MS). Dynamic changes in the SMO-1 proteome in response DNA damage as well as tissue-specific SMO-1 sub-proteomes will be assessed taking advantage of the recently developed SILAN (stable isotope labeling with amino acids in nematodes) technique
M.Yasir Malik
Research Experience
Junior Research Fellow with Prof. M.W.Amin (May 2011-2013),Department of Pharmacology, Hakim Ajmal Khan Tibbiya College, A.M.U, Aligarh
Project: Identifying novel factors in herbal drugs which delay aging.
Junior Research Fellow with Dr. Arnab Mukhopadhyay (April 2010 – April 2011) Molecular Aging Lab ,National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi
Projects
- Genome-wide RNAi screening for genes involved in regulation of insulin signaling in C.elegans.
- Molecular dissection of toxicity in aging and innate immunity in C.elegans.
- Characterising a novel gene conferring extreme longevity in C.elegans.
Academic Profile
- 2009- Master’s Degree - M.Sc.Toxicology - Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi
- 2007- Bachelor’s Degree - B.Sc.Biotechnology - Amity University, Noida
- 2004- Higher secondary (+2) – C.B.S.E- Hamdard Public School
- 2002- High School (10th) -C.B.S.E- Hamdard Public School, New Delhi
Publications
A novel kinase regulates dietary restriction-mediated longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans. Chamoli M, Singh A, Malik Y, Mukhopadhyay A. Aging Cell. 2014 Aug;13(4):641-55.
Extra-Curricular Achievements
- Won laurels in various speech, drama, poetry, creative writing competitions at school.
- Worked as Outdoor-Operations Incharge for N.G.O - Association for the Protection Of Civil Rights, New Delhi (2008-09).
Other Interests
Creative writing | Reading literature | Traveling | Photography
Languages Known
English | Hindi | Urdu